Carrier bound enzymes are well known since the pioneer work of Katchalsky and Bar-Eli. Such enzymes are widely used in various fields and also in large scale industrial processes. In medicine the quantitative measurement of certain enzymes in body fluids is an important diagnostic tool. The level and types of enzymes present are indicative of various states of pathological conditions, some of which cannot be detected and determined by other means. Various methods are in use for determining enzymes and isoenzymes, such as measurements of specific enzymatic activity, if necessary in the presence of inhibitors or activators so as to differentiate between isoenzymes; the use of separation techniques adapted to separate enzymes and isoenzymes, and the subsequent determination of these; immunodetermination of enzymes based on the specific antibodies. Most of the conventional techniques are rather cumbersome and expensive.
The use of monoclonal antibodies provides for a high degree of specificity of such assays, it is possible to prepare a great variety of monoclonal antibodies directed towards specific, welldefined antigenic sites of a given protein. The state of the art, suggests that it is possible to prepare monoclonal antibodies specific to various enzymes with a high affinity without adversely affecting the enzymatic activity. Antibodies bonded to a carrier are specific for a given enzyme. The present invention obviates a number of the drawbacks of existing systems of carrier bound biologically active proteins and provides valuable means for use in diagnosis and also for use in industrial processes where carrier bound proteins, and especially enzymes, are used.